44 



NATURE 



[November 9, 1893 



deer — which had been much rubbed down and in some cases 

 adorned with incised lines and nicks (Fig. 4). Of the bone 

 ornaments discovered, the most remarkable were some curious 

 objects like double eggs or acorns connected by a common stem 

 (Fig. 6). These, too, were incised in a similar manner. 

 Amongst the bored shells found I was shown specimens of 

 small Cyprasa (millepunctata), Cerithium, and a kind of 

 Trochus, and a quantity of Nassa neritea — the same shell that 

 formed the head ornament of the skeleton excavated by 

 ivi. Riviere in the Barma dou Cavillou. 



Another interesting correspondence between the present dis- 

 covery and that of the Barma dou Cavillou was the presence, 

 in the earth about the skeletons, of lumps of a ferruginous sub- 

 stance, which in this, as in the other cave, had partly stained 

 the bones. There can be no doubt that this had been placed 

 with tht departed that he might have the wherewithal to paint 

 his face and body for entry into the Spirit World. 



On the osteological characteristics of the skeletons I cannot 

 speak as an expert. They have, however, been examined by 

 competent authorities, whose accounts in the main agree. The 

 skulls were decidedly dolichocephalic. The large skull has 

 prominent supra-orbital ridges, the smaller skull has these pro- 

 minences less marked and is narrower across the frontal bones, 

 but, still, stronger, thicker, and more definitely ridged than the 

 Neolithic skulls of the Fiiialese. Professor Issel, M. Riviere, 

 Mr. A. V. Jennings, and more recently Dr. Verneau have been 

 independently led to compare the Cro-Magnoa skulls— 

 M. Riviere especially laying stress on the curious rectangular 

 orbits. Prof. Issel, in a communication read before the Natural 

 History of Genoa, although himself in favour of the Palao- 

 lithic date of the interments, was yet led to the conclusion that 

 the crania and skeletons presented on the whole the same racial 



Laugerie Haute and Basse, but there were included quartzite and 

 other forms peculiar to the still earlier art of Le Moustier. In 

 the same way the bones of extinct animals found lead us on this- 

 showing to the conclusion that the " Man of Mentone " dated 

 back to the days of the earliest group of Pleistocene mammals. 

 But as a matter of fact among several cases of bones of animals 

 found in the immediate neighbourhood of the skeletons that 

 have been recently examined all are of recent species, and not 

 a single characteristic Quaternary form occurred. It is to be 

 observed, moreover, that the mere fact that these were inter- 

 ments, implying as it does previous excavation, makes the 

 appearance of Pleistocene remains, and even Paloeolithic imple- 

 ments at higher levels in the cave-earth, of no value for 

 determining the age of the skeletons. 



The careful laying out of the dead in the attitude of sleep with 

 his flint knife in his hand, his necklace and head ornaments, 

 and the ochre beside him wherewith to paint his face and body 

 in the other world — all this shows a development in religious 

 custom which has hitherto in no single well-authenticated in- 

 stance been carried back to Palaeolithic times. It is character- 

 istically "Neolithic." We may go further and say that the 

 special forms of sepulture discovered here fit on in a suggestive 

 way to the burial rites still practised at a later date on this same 

 coast by the Neolithic people of the Finalese. There too we 

 find the body laid out in the same attitude of sleep, with the 

 legs partially drawn up, an attitude which, as distinguished 

 from the still more contracted posture of the Northern races in. 

 primaeval times, we may perhaps venture to regard as character- 

 istic of a less severe climate, and the less habitual necessity for 

 drawing up the legs under the shelter of whatever served them, 

 as a mantle. There too we find the same bored shells and teeth 

 hung round the neck, and the same ferruginous substance laid 



Fig. 4. — Deer'i-:oo:h psndants. 



.haracteristics as the undoubtedly Neolithic skeletons of the 

 caves of the Finalese further along the same Ligurian coast. 



The great depth at which these skeletons occurred, and the 

 absence, in this whole group of finds, of pottery, polished stone 

 implements, and the bones of domestic animals, must be cer- 

 tainly taken to show that they date from a considerably earlier 

 period than the Neolithic interments of the Finalese caves — 

 in which all these elements of more developed culture are 

 abundantly represented. 



But are we therefore to conclude that the Balzi Rossi remains 

 are of Paleolithic date? 



It seems to me that there are other circumstances to be con- 

 sidered in connection with these latter finds, which do not 

 admit of such a conclusion — unless, indeed, the word " Palseo- 

 lithic " is to be given a sense different from its usual accepta- 

 tion. 



When we come to examine the views as to the extreme 

 antiquity of the instruments, such as M. Riviere has not hesi- 

 tated to put forward in the most unqualified manner, we find, 

 in fact, a curious illustration of the danger of proving too much. 

 The skeletons lie in all cases beneath a vast mass of cave-earth 

 in which the remains of extinct animals are undoubtedly 

 associated with implements of flint and bone that may justly 

 be regarded as the work of Palceolithic man. Therefore we 

 are told the interments themselves must belong to the same 

 age. Long flint knives such as those discovered, may, it is 

 true, find parallels in some of the later Palseolithic caves such 

 as that of La Madeleine, though like implements were also in 

 common use in Neolithic times. But the argument invoked by M. 

 Riviere leads us to consequences far beyond this. In the cave- 

 earth of the overlying stratum implements occurred not only of 

 types characteristic of the Magdalenian group, of .Solutre, and of 



NO. 1254, VOL. 49] 



Fig. 5 — Bone arrow-head. 



beside the departed to deck his person in the Spirit World ; 

 there too flint and bone objects (some of these latter of very 

 similar forms) were placed ready to his hand. In the caves of 

 Balzi Rossi, however, the skeletons were at most propped up oj 

 pillowed by large stones : in the Finale interments, such as those 

 of the grotto of the Arene Candide, we find, in the case of the 

 adults, stones placed round and over the skeletons so as to form 

 a rude cist, though the children were still simply buried in the 

 cave-earth. In these later interments, moreover, the polished 

 axes and pottery placed beside the dead as well as the remains 

 of domesticated animals attest the higher stage of culture amidst 

 which they had lived. Still the points of similarity in the sepul- 

 chral rites practised in both groups are unmistakable. And in 

 view of these points of resemblance the conclusion arrived at by 

 Prof. Issel, that the Balzi Rossi skeletons, in spite of some more 

 primitive characteristics, belong essentially to the same race as 

 the skeletons of Finalmarina, gains additional force. 



The bone implements supply us with some fresh points of 

 relationship. The bored pendants, formed of canines of deer 

 much worn down, found with the skeletons both in the Barma 

 Grande and the Barma dou Cavillou are identical even to their 

 notched decorations with ornaments of the same kind found by 

 Prof. Issel in the Caverna delle Arene Candide near Final- 

 marina associated with undoubtedly Neolithic remains. Iden- 

 tical pendants have also been found in the Neolithic deposit of 

 the Grotta di Sant' Elia in Sardinia. It is to be observed that 

 very similar deer's tooth ornaments, though without the notches, 

 were found in the caves of La Madeleine, Laugerie Basse and 

 Les Eyzies, where they are ascribed to the Reindeer Period. A 

 stumpy bone punch also found near the Barma Grande skeletons, 

 in the possession of Mr. A. V. Jennings, is of the same type as 

 a bone implement from the excavations ofc he Neolithic deposit 



